The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1887-04-29
UN, CECIL COUNTY, MD. FRIDAY, APRIL %, 1887.

amount of labor required to prepare a
corn crop for cattle. make it the cheap
est food dairyman can raise. MY
opinion is that corn crop put into a
silo has all the feeding value it ever
possessed, and the labor Of husking,
slhelling and grinding is saved, the cost
of which is equal to one-fourth of the
crop.
Rapid VS.. Slow Filling Si1os.
An examination of the various COM
munications on the subject, shows quite
a change recommended from the for
mer practice, which was to entirely fill
the Silo as rapidly as possible, and i'm
mediately close it air tight Now most
advise to fill in three to four or five
feet, tramp down the edges all around,
and let it lie two to four days, or long
enough for the temperature to rise to
l3O or l40 degrees. (This tempera-
ture partially cooks the food, and if
maintained some time it kills the var
ions bacteria which promote the acid or
sour fermentation.) Then add another
similar layer, and wait again for the
heating; and so on until the silo is full.
By the old process, so often unsatisfac.
tory, the material was heated enough to
induce fermentation and to form just
the conditions enjoyed by the bacteria,
but did not heat enough to Kill them
The warmth of each successive layer is
at first kept in by the new layer, but
gradually passes upward into it, in part
The whole mass, however, remains
warm long enough to thoroughly de-
stroy the bacterial fermentation, and so
the silage remains sweet. Indeed, the
warmth induced by leaving the layers
with little air contained in them at
first, produces change of the starchy
material into sweet and soluble one
At this point, further change being
prevented by the successive additions.
which exclude air, the silage materials
remain sweet. Hence we have now
''sweet silage," instead of the "sour
silage," or the alcoholic silage, which
was chiefly obtained until recently; and
it was this kind to which so many OBJ
jsctions were raised, both by men, and
by the animals invited to consume it,
1t may also be added that 120 to 14O
degrees of heat probably acts favorably
upon the nitrogenous portions, render
ing them more digestible and nutritious.
Silos for Small Farms.
While, as in most other business
operations, SLIDING is most profitable on
a large scale, the farmer having but
COW or two, or few other animals, and
even the poultry people, may often
adopt the plan to advantage. A siIo
about six feet wide, twelve or fifteen
feet high, and ten, twelve, fifteen or
twenty feet long, or of any needed
length, may be cheaply constructed in
some Of the ways described elsewhere-iu
this paper.-For Cutting the silage, on
a large scale, a teed-eutter driven by
horse or steam power is needed But
on small scale the ordinary hand feed
cutter may be used. There is a diff
ference of opinion as to the best length
for cutting corn stalks, etc. some say
cut into halfinch lengths; others three
quarters or whole inch; others say two
inches long; and some even say that
little if any cutting at all is needed, be-
cause the silo renders the material ten
der enough to be readily masticated by
the animals We incline to short cut.
ting, especially for nearly matured corn
stalks The work of cutting short will
usually be repaid in the finer condition
of the material.